The arts in education can do more to develop dispositions for success and socially responsible action in our future artists, innovators, and leaders of tomorrow. In order to be a highly effective teacher-leader of art and design, it is proposed that the development of creativity and innovation must be balanced with analytical thinking and practical wisdom. Twenty-first century learning demands that teachers become designers of classroom environments and curricula that enable students to develop their full capacities as human beings, while tapping into a balance of their creative, analytical and practical entrepreneurial skills and mindsets. Artist-teacher-leaders m ust also capitalize on students' abilities for connection making, inquiry, and self-direction to foster their future social-emotional strengths and dispositions. When more focused on the developm ent of students' creative process skills and responsibility, art and design education may be better positioned to foster empathic, interdisciplinary 21st-century skills and habits of mind success. In this aim, the marriage of design thinking strategies and learner-centered pedagogies serve as catalysts of change in the visual arts. This paper reports on research and theoretical frameworks of successful intell igence and balanced intelligence that support innovative and currently implemented programming in a U.S. undergraduate and graduate teacher training program.